Bottle Carbonation Not Working

[ssashton]

Hi,

Recently my wife has been making kombucha and doing secondary fermentation in Wilko flip-top bottles. The first batch, primed with satsuma juice and ginger, came out well. Subsequent batches have not been very fizzy even when adding a few grams of table sugar.

Recently I had a bit of stout left in the fermenter after kegging, so I thought I'd stick it in a couple flip-top bottles with 1tsp sugar each and try bottle conditioning. However, after waiting 3 days (around 16-19C) it's barely fizzy.

I do cold crash and use finings in the fermenter before transfer, so the cold may delay priming, but that is not also the case with kombucha which is 25C when going in to secondary.

Could there be something I'm overlooking, or maybe these bottles are known to not hold much pressure? Anybody else had issues with these bottles?

 

[The Baron]

Are they meant to hold pressure i.e Bone Fida beers bottles because to me they look like olive oil/vinaigrette type bottles but it is hard to tell. you got them from Wilko what are they sold as also it may not be the bottles anyway

 

[The Baron]

I have just searched the wilko site are they the ones that are £12 for 6 if so it does say they are suitable for beer so the bottles should not be the problem

 

[ssashton]

Wilko. They sell them in the home brew section.

Looking just at the beer, not kombucha, does cold kill the yeast? I thought it just made it go to sleep and it would come back to being active after a day of room temp.

 

[The Baron]

You need to put the beer in a warm place once bottled for the yeast to re-ferment and produce Co2 in the bottle to give them the fizz. Usually a week to 10 days at approx a average room temp should do. If it is too cold the yeast will go dormant, if that is what you have done it should have re-fermented if you have had them in a cool place move them to a warmer room for 7 to 10 days

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I use Wilco bottles (though the 500ml) version. They are fine.

I don’t think 3 days at 19C is enough. Give it a couple of weeks.

 

[An Ankoù]

I use Wilco bottles (though the 500ml) version. They are fine.

I don’t think 3 days at 19C is enough. Give it a couple of weeks.

Double that. In my experience, anyway.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Double that. In my experience, anyway.

Even better! In any event not three days.

 

[Benfleet Brewery]

I use Wilco bottles (though the 500ml) version. They are fine.

I don’t think 3 days at 19C is enough. Give it a couple of weeks.

+1
I use these bottles too. They are fine. Two weeks at 19 degrees or so and mine carb up nicely.

 

[ssashton]

Ahh okay! Thanks guys!

I've found my kegs carbonate in about 3 days, but maybe I'm just seeing pressure increase from the warm up.

 

[Madhouse]

As I always say - impatience is the brewers worst enemy. Leave it longer to carb up and you should be fine.

 

[GerritT]

Two weeks here.
Bottle at the weekend, first test 2 weekends later, good to drink another 2 weekends later. Weekends yay!

 

[Zephyr259]

Two weeks here.
Bottle at the weekend, first test 2 weekends later, good to drink another 2 weekends later. Weekends yay!

That's essentially my schedule as well. It also varies with yeast, I recently bottled a split batch both primed to 2.5 vol; after 8 days the one with CML Pia was fairly low carb, aound the same as my bitters at 1.5 vol but the Belgian Ardennes was probably close to full carb, it had an extra day in the bottle. Also I sampled the last bottled filled which got a bit of air bubbled through it, the extra oxygen may have helped that one.

 

[Cwrw666]

If as you say you are cold crashing before bottling then it does take longer to pressure up as the cold crash drops much of the yeast out of suspension. Without cold crashing just a few days would do.

 

[ssashton]

If as you say you are cold crashing before bottling then it does take longer to pressure up as the cold crash drops much of the yeast out of suspension. Without cold crashing just a few days would do.

Yes, I've realised this is the answer for me!

I used to 'cold crash' at about 10C, then keg and move to normal room temp about 18C. The keg would pressure up within about 3-4 days.

A while ago I got a dedicated beer fridge and I'm now cold crashing at 3.5C. I think this lower temp seems to make a huge difference in how long the yeast takes to come back alive.

I do wonder if that lower temp is really dropping yeast out, or if it just puts it in a much deeper sedation.

I started a keg priming last Sunday. Until Wednesday evening it still didn't have pressure. I added 1/2 teaspoon of dried yeast and within 2 days it was getting pressure.

I wonder if it's best to cold crash and then add a bit of new yeast... or just not cold crash as deep.

 

[Frog 1]

I've had a few issues with low to no carbonation, I have an IPA which just doesn't want to play fair, thing is, my mates have some of the same batch and they have had better results than me, mine have probably been stored at between 16 to 18 degrees C so I popped some on the radiator to give em a kick up the bum but still nothing, they taste very sweet (not in a good way) which I presume is the priming sugar.

Silly question, but can priming sugar go off? we used some that my mate brought round that he had used before, to be honest it looked a couple of years old, wondering if that could be the issue?

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I've had a few issues with low to no carbonation, I have an IPA which just doesn't want to play fair, thing is, my mates have some of the same batch and they have had better results than me, mine have probably been stored at between 16 to 18 degrees C so I popped some on the radiator to give em a kick up the bum but still nothing, they taste very sweet (not in a good way) which I presume is the priming sugar.

Silly question, but can priming sugar go off? we used some that my mate brought round that he had used before, to be honest it looked a couple of years old, wondering if that could be the issue?

Radiator may not be a good idea, you may overcook it - literally. Yeast will die if it gets too warm, upper 30’s depending on the yeast.

Just store your bottles somewhere in the low to mid twenties for a couple of weeks minimum.

 

[Frog 1]

 

[ssashton]

I have done a bit of experimentation. I have found that if I use Wilko Beer finings in fermenter before kegging and priming, it doesn't want to play along.

Wilko finings is not gelatin, it is Chitosan - some kind of product from chrustations.

I don't know if it has some reaction with the yeast that deactivates it, or if it is just so good at pulling the yeast out of solution there isn't enough left to prime...

I'm now priming in the keg and then 'injecting' the finings via a pressurised bottle though the gas in valve.